Out-of-home care survey national dataset 2015 Data Quality Statement

Identifying and definitional attributes

Metadata item type:

Quality Statement

METeOR identifier:

630619

Registration status:

AIHW Data Quality Statements, Endorsed 22/03/2016

Data quality

Quality statement summary:

The 2015 national dataset includes data on the views of children in out-of-home care, collected by the state/territory departments responsible for child protection, as part of local case management processes.

The dataset includes children aged 8–17 years residing in out-of-home care (including foster care, relative/kinship care, family group homes, residential care and independent living), whose care arrangements had been ordered by the relevant Children’s Court and where the parental responsibility for the child had been transferred to the Minister or Chief Executive, and who had been on a relevant court order for 3 months or more.

The dataset includes data about children's views on various topics, including feelings of safety, participation in decision-making, community connection and activity, family connection and contact, presence of a significant adult in their life, and leaving care.

Institutional environment:

Unit record (child-level) data were provided to the AIHW by the state and territory departments responsible for child protection.

The AIHW is a major national agency set up by the Australian Government under the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare Act 1987 to provide reliable, regular and relevant information and statistics on Australia’s health and welfare. It is an independent corporate Commonwealth entity established in 1987, governed by a management board and accountable to the Australian Parliament through the Health portfolio.

The AIHW aims to improve the health and wellbeing of Australians through better health and welfare information and statistics. It collects and reports information on a wide range of topics and issues, ranging from health and welfare expenditure, hospitals, disease and injury and mental health to ageing, homelessness, disability and child protection.

The Institute also plays a role in developing and maintaining national metadata standards. This work contributes to improving the quality and consistency of national health and welfare statistics. The Institute works closely with governments and non-government organisations to achieve greater adherence to those standards in administrative data collections to promote national consistency and comparability of data and reporting.

One of the main functions of the AIHW is to work with the states and territories to improve the quality of administrative data and, where possible, to compile national data sets based on data from each jurisdiction, to analyse the data sets and disseminate information and statistics.

Timeliness:

The reference period for the 2015 dataset is from 1 February 2015 to 30 June 2015; states/territories collected data as part of their local case management processes during this period.

The dataset was collected for the first time for the 2015 reference period. As such, there are no prior collections, and no subsequent collections are currently confirmed, however it was originally conceived as a biennial collection.

For the 2015 dataset, the first iteration of data was due to the AIHW by the end of July 2015. Data from the 2015 dataset were published in March 2016.

Requests for unpublished data can be made by contacting the AIHW. See http://www.aihw.gov.au/data/. A cost-recovery charge may apply to requests that take substantial resources to compile. Depending on the nature of the request, requests for access to unpublished data may require approval from the state and territory data custodians and/or the AIHW Ethics Committee.

General inquiries about AIHW publications can be made to the Digital and Media Communications Unit on (02) 6244 1000 or via email to info@aihw.gov.au.

Interpretability:

The report (http://www.aihw.gov.au/publication-detail/?id=60129554600) provides supporting information on the data collection methodology, and in the the footnotes accompanying tables and figures. Readers are advised to consider all supporting and contextual information to ensure appropriate interpretation of analyses presented by the AIHW.

Relevance:

The dataset includes children aged 8–17 years residing in out-of-home care (including foster care, relative/kinship care, family group homes, residential care and independent living), whose care arrangements had been ordered by the relevant Children’s Court and where the parental responsibility for the child had been transferred to the Minister or Chief Executive, and who had been on a relevant court order for 3 months or more.

Data were collected by the state/territory departments responsible for child protection. As the data were collected as part of local case management processes, there was some variation in the sampling and administration methodologies used across states/territories. A brief description of the process used by each state and territory is provided in the report (http://www.aihw.gov.au/publication-detail/?id=60129554600).

The dataset includes data about children’s views on various topics, including feelings of safety, participation in decision-making, community connection and activity, family connection and contact, presence of a significant adult in their life, and leaving care.

Data sourced from the dataset are used for reporting of selected indicators under the National Standards for Out-of-Home Care.

Accuracy:

Data were collected by the state/territory departments responsible for child protection. As the data were collected as part of local case management processes, there was some variation in the sampling and administration methodologies used across states/territories. A brief description of the process used by each state and territory is provided in the report (http://www.aihw.gov.au/publication-detail/?id=60129554600). Data were extracted from the state/territory data system, according to definitions and technical specifications agreed by states/territories and AIHW.

The dataset only includes in-scope children who participated in the data collection that occurred as part of local case management processes. Response rates (i.e. the number of children approached, divided by the number of children who completed the questions) for each state/territory are not known. In-scope children who did not participate in the data collection (e.g. because the timing of their case review did not align with the data collection reference period) are excluded from the dataset. It is difficult to determine the number of excluded children due to the movement of children in and out of scope over the 5-month reference period. There may be differences between the children included in the dataset and those not included, but the nature, extent and impact of potential biases in the final dataset used for analysis is uncertain.

Data for the question 'Do you get enough help to make decisions about your future?' are not available for New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, and the Northern Territory.

Coherence:

The dataset was collected for the first time for the 2015 reference period. As such, there are no prior collections, and no subsequent collections are currently confirmed, however it was originally conceived as a biennial collection.

Data were collected by the state/territory departments responsible for child protection. As the data were collected as part of local case management processes, there was some variation in the sampling and administration methodologies used across states/territories. A brief description of the process used by each state and territory is provided in the report (http://www.aihw.gov.au/publication-detail/?id=60129554600). Data were extracted from the state/territory data system, according to definitions and technical specifications agreed by states/territories and AIHW.

Data for the question 'Do you get enough help to make decisions about your future?' are not available for New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, and the Northern Territory.